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‘Walking Dead’ Creator Releases New Virtual Reality Thriller ‘Gone’
The phenomenal success of the Serial podcast — a serialized murder mystery produced by the creators of This American Life — became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in 2014, and its influence continues to be felt in television, movies and even video games. It’s already inspired a number of similarly themed TV series, starting with HBO’s “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer” on Netflix, with more on the way, including a possible adaptation of the podcast for film and/or TV.
Is impact on gaming came can be seen in last year’s acclaimed “interactive movie” Her Story, made by Silent Hill: Shattered Memories creator Sam Barlow, which gave players the chance to solve the case of a missing person, rather than watch or listen to the story unfold before them.
Cerebral thrillers aren’t terribly common in video games, but their drip-feed style of storytelling seems to fit in nicely when the viewer/listener is given the chance to interact with the narrative. Taking the immersion factor a step further is WEVR’s new virtual reality game Gone, produced by The Walking Dead creator Skybound.
This serialized virtual reality thriller follows “Meredith Clover, a mother consumed with the search for her missing daughter. Nine-year-old Emilia Clover vanished impossibly, in broad daylight, before a dozen baffled useless witnesses. Navigating a complicated trail of increasingly surreal clues and her own daughter’s closely guarded secrets, Meredith discovers that her Emilia is much more than simply gone.”
Gone comes from JT Petty, who you may recognize for his work on Splinter Cell, The Burrowers and Outlast. It’s available now exclusively for Samsung Gear VR, via their Milk VR platform.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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